Thursday, January 28, 2010

This past pizza Monday we invited a few folks over to be guinea pigs to sample our pies as part of our continuing quest to make excellent pizza. We had two de-frosted doughs which had been frozen for a week, and they actually were the ones that were easiest to work with and form a round, normal pizza shaped pizza. The two batches of fresh dough which had been proofing overnight were possibly under kneaded, as they were a bit wet and not as elastic as they should have been. They made for tasty, if a little bit ugly and less standard looking pizza.

The pizzas (sorry, no photo's this go 'round):

Margherita (x2)

An improvement over the prior week, at least the first pie was anyway. The second pie was not as well formed, but we were a few bottles in by then so thankfully everyone showed some mercy and at least pretended like they enjoyed it.

The "root down"

This was quite the hit and I think most people's favorite of the evening. For the 'sauce' I boiled three carrots chopped into thirds and half a celery root cut into large cubes with some salt and two bay leaves. After cooking until tender, I mashed the celery root and carrot, and then added butter, salt, and olive oil. Over the sauce I sprinkled a chopped boiled potato, sauteed onion and goat cheese mixture which Natalie had used to fill some savory brioche pockets she had made several days before. After baking, I added some baby arugula, sea salt and good quality olive oil to finish the pizza. Maybe not a traditional pie, but a solid combination of root veges, good quality dairy, and fruity olive oil.

"Greens, pig, piave"

Greens=chard, pig=bacon, piave=piave. I sauteed the bacon beforehand, and placed directly on the dough, along with green swiss chard, piave, olive oil and salt. Took out of the oven and finished with a bit more olive oil, salt, and lemon juice. A tasty pie.

Truth be told, the Zonin was an enjoyable quaff. Pepiere Pepié Cot was ok but less enjoyable. Villa Maria Gattinara was delicious: mineral, fresh, red fruited, elegant, piemontese and damn...only $15. Only because I want you to drink this (and because I need to spend less on wine) I'll divulge the source (Bi-Rite) and if they still have it I would buy every last bottle.